Frozen In Time
by Doctor McFly
Summary: Episode One: A month after Marty first stepped into the DeLorean, and he thought everything had returned to normal in his life... until a strange man calling himself the Doctor stepped out of a blue phone booth. TBC in Episode Two: Alien Expectations!
1. I'm the Doctor

(My main reason for doing this is because after hearing Marty call out the name "Doc" about 50 times over three films all I could picture after a while was him calling out "Doc" and having _the_ Doctor reply.)

Back to the Doctor

Frozen in Time Part I

Tuesday

November 26th

1985

It had been one month, exactly.

He hadn't been keeping track of the passing weeks or anything, he hadn't been waiting for a month to pass, but as he stared at his reflection that morning, his untamable brown hair looking more disheveled and his blue eyes looking more tired than usual, he thought about that day in October and realized that somehow a month had managed to pass him by.

As he sat in his English class that day the sight of the letters 2 and 6 staring up at him from the assignment sheet made him feel uneasy.

October 26th, that was the day that would stay ingrained in his memory for the rest of his life, it was the day he had been so desperate to return to or else spend the rest of his life trapped in the wrong time. Sometimes the memory amused him, because who else could say there was a day they had to return to? Who else could say they had actually done it? Three times?

He had time travelled. 17-year-old Martin S. McFly from Hill Valley California had stepped into a DeLorean on October 26th 1985 and stepped out in 1955… and 2015… and 1885.

For a long time Jennifer, his girlfriend, and he didn't speak about it. What was he gonna say?

"Remember that time we travelled to the year 2015 and met our bratty children?"

The simple matter was that Doc Brown's time machine had been destroyed beyond repair and there was no point discussing time travel when Marty knew he would never do it again.

That suited Marty just fine, he was done travelling through time and messing the timeline so bad he very nearly couldn't fix it. Maybe Doc Brown wanted to keep time travelling with his family, but Marty wanted to stay in Hill Valley for as long as possible.

Still, now that a month had passed Marty realized he couldn't just keep ignoring what had happened. With Doc Brown god knew where in time, Marty needed to make sure the information about time travel left in Doc Brown's lab didn't end up into the wrong person's hands. He had seen the catastrophic results that could lead to first-hand.

He had asked Jennifer to meet him at the lab after school; however, thanks to her cheerleading practice she would be a little late, so when school got out that afternoon he stopped home first.

The house was quiet and still. He walked through the halls quickly and threw schoolbooks into his room, where his eye caught the picture of him and Doc Brown in 1885. He sat down on his bed and stared at it for a minute. It was black and white, the two of them dressed in old west clothing. They stood in front of a large clock face, Marty on the left and Doc Brown with his wild white hair and manic smile on the right. It was the only evidence he had of his time travelling, and the only photo in his possession of the Doc.

It was troubling not knowing where – or when – his best friend was. Marty had thought that by now he would have heard from him again.

He lay down for a minute, wondering where he might have gone, and as he contemplated all the possibilities of time travel, he gently drifted off into asleep.

OOO

"Marty?" Jennifer pushed open the door to Doc Brown's laboratory and was met with darkness and the sound of ticking clocks. She strained her brown eyes to see into the black. Marty, however, was nowhere to be seen.

She sighed. Marty had made such a big deal and getting this over with, and now he was late? She felt around the wall for a light switch. She was hoping to find a phone she could call Marty from.

The light switch didn't work.

"Jennifer," said a quiet voice from within.

"Marty is that you? The light's not working," she took a step forward. "Marty, what's going on?"

"Time traveller detected. Subject acquired," replied the robotic voice.

The lights suddenly came on. Jennifer's eyes went wide with shock, and then all she could do was scream.

OOO

Marty woke with a start. He could hear people talking. His family was home. For a second he couldn't figure out why they were home so early, then he realized he was lying in the dark. The sun had set.

"Shit, Jennifer!" He grabbed his jean jacket, threw it on over his red shirt and ran out of his room, nearly ploughing over his mom and dad.

"Where's the fire Marty?" His dad called out.

"Marty, dinner's ready," his mom chimed in.

"Sorry mom, I'm late!" He was already opening the door as he replied, and his words were lost to the night as he opened the garage door and jumped into his black Toyota 4X4.

He couldn't believe he was late! Jennifer was going to be pissed – if she was even still there. Things already felt too distant between them and he didn't want to add the stress of a fight to their relationship. He managed to reach the Doc's lab in record time, and could see the door was partially open. She was still there. He parked and ran to the door.

"Jennifer, sorry I'm late!" He went quiet, there were no lights on in the lab. He flicked the lights on and saw the lab had been completely trashed. He stared in shock, unable to comprehend what he was seeing for a second. Had it been broken into? Had Jennifer trashed the place in anger? Had there been an earthquake?

Marty went in and started looking around to see if anything had been stolen, and that's when he saw Jennifer's purple shoe.

It was laying in the middle of the room, but not by itself, it was attached to a foot, and a leg… He walked slowly towards it, and there was Jennifer as still and quiet as death. No article of clothing, no strand of teased dirty-blonde hair, was out of place, but her pale face was twisted into a horrified expression, as though she were screaming.

He fell to his knees by her side, grabbing her hand. She was completely stiff, but he could still feel warmth on her. Warmth, but no pulse, and her face still screaming.

Marty looked away, he felt sick. His mind raced trying to understand what was happening… then he heard the sound. It was like listening to a song when the radio was tuned between two stations, it was like there was a melody but it whined with static, getting louder and louder. Then he saw a blue light coming from behind one of the lab's doors.

He couldn't help but wish against the odds. He couldn't help but want the one person he trusted to get him out of situations. He couldn't help but wish for a miracle.

"Doc?" Marty chocked out, desperate for his friend to be there.

Marty slowly got up and walked over to the door. He took a deep breath and threw open the door to the other room. He saw in the shadows the back of a tall man with wild hair who wore a long brown coat.

It was him. It was Doc Brown. He had come back from his time travels to fix this. Marty ran forward, reaching towards his old friend.

"Doc!"

The man turned around, a slightly confused look on his face as he smiled down at Marty.

"Yes?" He asked in what sounded like an English accent, though Marty couldn't be sure. He was the same height as Doc Brown, but that was the only similarity. He was a wiry man with brown hair that seemed to stand on end. His light brown eyes looked kind and wise beyond Marty's understanding and he smiled with his entire face.

"Who the hell are you?" Marty took a defensive step back.

The man's forehead wrinkled and his smile faded completely into incomprehension. "Um, I'm sorry. I thought you were calling me," he held out his out for Marty to shake. "I'm the Doctor."

(Has this been done before? Maybe. I'd be shocked if it hasn't. I made a point not to look because I didn't want anyone else's fic influencing me. If there were an exposition song, I'd be singing it right now. I don't think fan-fiction should assume its audience knows all the facts about the fandom it's tackling, and seeing I'm putting two fandom's with different audiences together I thought it prudent to give a basic summary. I apologize if you're a hardcore fan and feel I'm being redundant. I also apologize for the cheesy title, but the second I wrote it down it made me smile so I couldn't change it. This is a very ambitious project, and being I'm only doing this for fun when I have the time, I'm not sure how long it will take to write. Obviously, the more people are interested in it, the more I'll try to work on it – so send some reviews my way. I want to make 13 adventures (like a season of Doctor Who), which will probably be 4 parts each. So… 52 chapters. Heh, we'll see.)


	2. Subject Acquired

Back to the Doctor

Frozen in Time Part 2

A moment passed with Marty staring at this strange British man who inexplicably stood in Doc Brown's lab. Marty couldn't focus on the strange blue box looming behind the man, because he was far too aware of the stiff body of Jennifer lying on the cold floor behind him.

"What did you do to Jennifer?" Marty forgot his apprehension and took a menacing step forward.

"Who?"

Marty felt something white-hot in his brain. He instantly recognized it, and gave himself over to it completely. Rage. He lunged at the man, grabbing hold of the collar on his light blue pinstripe suit with both hands and pushed him up against the blue box, his voice cracking as he screamed at him.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER!"

The man, who had called himself the Doctor, looked behind Marty and then he saw her, the young girl lying on the floor, her face frozen in a terrified scream.

"Listen to me," he looked down at Marty. "I swear I had nothing to do with that."

"Yeah, you swear?" Marty pulled his fist back, ready to punch him in the face.

The Doctor put his hands up defensively. "You can hit me, or you can let me look at her. I might be able to help."

Marty's mind raced for a second, he couldn't think straight.

"Help? Who the hell are you!"

"I'm the Doctor and whatever happened to her happened before I even got here!"

Marty's grip loosened a little.

"You're a doctor?" Marty asked uncertainly.

"I can help," came the reply.

Marty let go of his suit, his hands shaking from the adrenaline. "I swear to god, if you had anything to do with this-!"

The Doctor was already moving away from him, running over to Jennifer as he pulled what looked like a silver pen out of his pocket. He crouched down and a blue light shone from the tip of the pen as he waved it back and forth over her.

Marty tried to walk towards them, but he felt his legs give out and he crumpled to the floor, sitting in the doorway and staring and the two figures helplessly.

"Please tell me she's not dead. She can't be dead…" How could she be dead when they were supposed to get married? Have a home together? Have a family together? He could feel tears running down his face, but he didn't bother trying to wipe them away.

"She's not dead," came the Doctor's reply.

"What?" Marty sat up a little. "She's alive?"

The Doctor turned and looked at Marty.

"What can you tell me about what happened here?"

"I asked her to meet me here, but I was late and when I got here-" Marty looked around at the trashed lab. "I don't know what happened here."

"What's your name?" The Doctor walked over to Marty and kneeled down in front of him.

"What?"

"Your name?" He asked again, his kind eyes looking the teenager over.

"Marty… Marty McFly."

"Marty McFly, Jennifer is not dead, but she's not alive either."

"What?"

The Doctor grabbed Marty's shoulder's, maybe trying to reassure him, maybe trying to keep him from lashing out again. "She's out of sync with time."

The word "time" sent a strange prickling sensation down Marty's spine.

"Essentially, she's been frozen in time."

Marty's eyes went wide. Had something in the lab done this? Some experiment of Doc Brown's that had gone awry after being neglected for so long? Was this Marty's fault for asking her to meet him there?

"Well how do we unfreeze her?" Marty was beginning to panic again and the Doctor needed to calm him down if he wanted to get this situation under control.

"First we need to figure out how this happened."

"It could be anything in here. Any of his inventions could have done this."

The Doctor narrowed his eyes. "Any of whose inventions?"

"Doc Brown's."

The lights suddenly went out.

Marty jumped to his feet and the Doctor followed him, both blindly looking around.

"Who's there?" Marty called into the dark.

The Doctor held up the silver pen and the strange blue light began to emit from it again, this time instead of scanning it shone light over the destroyed lab.

"What that thing supposed to do?" Marty finally asked. What kind of thing can scan a person and also double as a flashlight? Could it turn the lights back on too?

"Sonic screwdriver."

"A screwdriver?"

"Time traveller detected," a strange robotic voice called out.

Both the Doctor and Marty instinctively tensed up.

"Subject acquired."

The lights came back on and in the blink of an eye the thing had emerged from its hiding place and now stood in front of the two. It dwarfed even the Doctor, it's face hidden by a filthy hood. It looked like the figure had robbed the clothes from a homeless man, and as Marty wondered what was so familiar about these clothes he felt the Doctor shove him towards the door.

"Run! Get out of here!" The Doctor called out.

Marty didn't know how he was supposed to run and leave the Doctor behind when this person or thing was clearly after him. Time traveller it had said. This thing was after time travellers and that's why Jennifer was attacked. However briefly, Jennifer had nonetheless travelled to the future with Marty a month ago.

The thing grabbed the Doctor's neck and began choking him. The Doctor's screwdriver was knocked out of his hands and despite his best efforts he couldn't defend himself against the figure.

Marty looked around until his eyes fell on a metal pole lying in the wreckage. He quickly pulled it out and hit the thing on its back as hard as he could. A loud metal clang rang out and Marty felt the hit reverberate up his arms. He dropped the beam and called out in pain. He couldn't figure out how or why it had come to be there, but now Marty knew that this thing strangling the Doctor was a robot.

One of the robot's hands released the Doctor and swung out, Marty tried to dodge out of the way but it managed to just clip his jaw, sending himself flying to the ground. The force of the swing made the hood fall from the robot's head, and now the whirring gears and exposed wires of its face could be seen.

It looked like a crudely made robot, a robot without skin and all its metal bones and electric muscles exposed, with bright red lights for eyes. It wasn't chunky, every piece on the skull had a purpose, the Doctor could tell that much. This robot had been made by someone incredibly good with electronics.

"Run!" The Doctor choked out again, but he was beginning to realize that Marty was not the kind of person who abandoned someone in danger.

Marty got up, tasting blood in his mouth, and jumped onto the back of the robot. He started grabbing at wires, desperately trying to pull them out and incapacitate the robot, but none of the wires would budge and with its swinging arm the robots was trying to grab Marty and throw him off.

"Won't-work," the Doctor gurgled.

"What do I do! How do I kill it!" Marty ducked as the robot's arm swung over his head.

"Surge-elec-tricity-or-"

The robot arm grabbed Marty's hair. Marty screamed out and the robot jerked his head back and he let go of the robot. He felt himself get thrown across the room and hit the wall, hard. In his daze he heard the Doctor say one last mangled word.

"Mag-net."

Marty pushed himself up, but for a second could see nothing but blackness. His vision started to come back, like a tunnel of light, and so did a memory, something from months and months ago. He couldn't remember anything else from that day, but he could remember being here, in Doc Brown's lab, asking a question he had asked a dozen times:

"What's that Doc?" He had been asking about yet another strange contraption the Doc was working on.

"An Electro-Magnetic Pulse, Marty. One push of this button and anything electronic within range will immediately overload and shut off."

Marty was instantly on his feet searching through the wreckage. He could remember seeing in the lab after that, always in the same place on a shelf, but now that shelf was knocked over and all its contents lay trapped underneath in a chaotic pile.

The robot, meanwhile, was beginning its real work. Its coat parted as its chest cavity opened like a door, a long metal shaft with a burning light at the tip emerged from within.

"Marty!" The Doctor choked, trying to get the teenager to grab his sonic screwdriver, but Marty was lifting a shelving unit off the floor and wasn't paying attention to him.

The Doctor knew this robot was the weapon that had frozen Jennifer in time and now it was going to do the same to him.

Marty knew the danger was growing, knew he was running out of time, but no matter how hard he looked through the rubble, the Electro-Magnetic Pulse was nowhere to be found.

**To Be Continued…**

(Why did I pick the 10th Doctor? I wanted a version of the Doctor who could match Doc Brown's energy, so it had to be one of the new ones. The ninth was too broody, and I wanted someone who looked and acted older than Marty, so the eleventh was nixed as well. Ah number ten, the perfect balance. Now that that's out of the way, how's episode one so far?)


	3. The TARDIS

Back to the Doctor

Frozen in Time Part 3

In a moment the time traveller-hunting robot would freeze the Doctor in time, essentially killing him, and his only hope was that Marty McFly would pick up his fallen sonic screwdriver – figure out how to use it – and turn off the robot's weapon. And he had to do that within the next 13 seconds.

Unfortunately, Marty was rummaging through the trashed remains of Doc Brown's lab for god knew what and the Doctor was a moment away from being frozen in time forever.

Then Marty let out an excited yell.

"Aha!" He pulled a bulky piece of machinery out and roughly placed it on a flat surface. The Doctor could just make out a piece of duct tape on the machine that had three block letters written on it in thick black ink.

E M P

Marty pushed the button on the Electro-Magnetic Pulse. He expected there to be a blinding light and a large surge of energy that would undoubtedly throw him back, and all he got was a whirring of gears and then, and then… nothing.

"NO!" Marty yelled out, and turned to look at the Doctor in defeat.

The Doctor and the robot were completely still, and for a moment Marty thought the robot had succeeded in freezing the Doctor as well, but then the Doctor began moving, began to twist his way out of the robot's grip, and as he did so the hulking robot slowly began to teeter and once the Doctor was free it fell over and crashed to the ground.

Marty looked at Doc Brown's machine. "Jesus Christ, it worked!"

The Doctor took a moment to rub his sore throat and coughed a couple times as he looked the teenager over. He was impressed, not only because Marty had been able to think on his feet so well, but also by the fact that whoever owned this lab had also clearly managed to make an EMP from scratch.

"Are you all right?" Marty rushed over to the tall man.

"I'm fine," the Doctor replied in a raspy voice.

"What the hell is that thing?"

"I have no idea," the Doctor bent over and grabbed his sonic screwdriver, scanning the still robot.

"Is it dead?"

"Well, it was never alive to begin with. But, no, it can be switched on again at any time," he pocketed his screwdriver.

Marty couldn't bear to look at Jennifer, but he managed to point at her. "It did that to Jennifer, right? So… now you can bring her back?"

"Maybe," the Doctor grinned up at Marty, a sudden idea in his mind. "I'm going to need some equipment from my TARDIS."

"Your…?" Marty had no idea what the Doctor was talking about. There was more to this man than Marty had really been able to grasp in his earlier panic, but now things were calming down, now Marty was beginning to understand that there might have even been something worth worrying about with this stranger.

"The blue box," the Doctor replied, and Marty remembered seeing it in the room with the Doctor when he first saw him.

The Doctor was already on his feet and heading towards the back room. Marty followed him, mostly because he couldn't stand the idea of being alone in that room with a robot that could potentially turn back on and kill him… or with that scream frozen on Jennifer's face.

When the Doctor opened the doors to what looked like a blue wooden phone booth, Marty expected to see a closet full of tools, but instead he saw a ramp and the Doctor walked in… and kept walking.

Marty stepped inside after the Doctor and looked around. There was an entire room in the small blue box, and it was a huge room, far bigger than Doc Brown's lab, and all logic told Marty there was no way it could exist within that box. But logic also told him that DeLoreans couldn't travel through time and killer robots shouldn't exist.

The Doctor started grabbing seemingly random wires and pieces of equipment, and when he was done he turned around and stared at Marty, who was no longer looking around but instead just standing on the ramp inside the TARDIS, waiting for the Doctor.

"Well?" The Doctor asked.

"Well what?" Marty was confused. Had the Doctor asked him to do something?

"Aren't you going to ask me anything…? Or say something?"

"Huh?"

"About it being bigger on the inside?"

"I wasn't going to, no, not really."

"Why not?"

Marty looked over his shoulder at the robot lying on the floor of Doc Brown's lab and then back towards the Doctor. "There are bigger things on my mind!"

"Bigger than physics as you know it being thrown out the window?"

"… A robot just tried to kill me!"

"Well, you're not the one he was after."

Marty cocked his eyebrow. "Wait a minute, are you trying to say that robot was after you?"

There was no doubting it, Marty had specifically heard that robot say "time traveller detected," but of course that didn't necessarily mean that was the "target" it had "acquired." Or did it? Suddenly Marty didn't want to move until he knew every last detail about this strange man. If the robot had been looking for the Doctor and not Marty, that meant Jennifer being frozen was because of this stranger.

"_How_ is it bigger on the inside? What is this thing? And who are you, really?"

"Like I said, I'm the Doctor. This is the TARDIS, my ship."

"Ship? How the hell is this thing a ship? Where are the rockets? Or wheels? Or sails?"

"Well the propulsion system is a bit more complex than what you have in – what year is it?"

"What… _year_?"

"Judging by your clothes I'd say mid-80s."

"Are you seriously trying to tell me you're a time traveller?"

The Doctor paused. He hadn't meant to give out all this information, but it was hard to deny it when the robot had called him a time traveller.

"Yes."

"And this is…"

"A time machine."

Marty shook his head, then he started to back up. "No, no, no," he kept repeating to himself under his breath. There was no way on god's good earth he had ended up in another time machine. He felt uneasy until he was outside the TARDIS and back in Doc Brown's lab, and although he wanted to slam the blue doors shut and take off into the night, the Doctor was running down the ramp with the arms still full of random metal bits and Marty knew he still needed him to save Jennifer.

The Doctor, used to humans being rather confused and perplexed by time travel, thought Marty just needed a little time.

Marty was still backing up when he felt a hand grab his ankle, a very strong hand, and when Marty looked down at his white Nike runners, he saw that it was a metal hand.

"Time traveller detected," the robot voice whined, and Marty was pulled to the ground.

**To Be Continued…**

(Oh those pesky time-travelling robots. Also, I never thought I'd write the sentence "time-travelling robot" so many times in a story – let alone once.)


	4. What the Hell is Time Energy?

Back to the Doctor

Frozen in Time Part 4

Marty was jerked to the floor by the reanimated robot. He had no time to react, his arms flew out and he fell hard on his stomach and ribs. The wind was knocked out of his lungs and although he struggled to get away the robot began to pull Marty closer.

"Hang on Marty!" The Doctor called out as he crouched down and started plugging wires into the bits of machines he had just grabbed from the TARDIS.

Marty kicked at the robot with his free leg, and instantly regretted it after he heard a sharp crack and felt a wave of pain go up his leg.

The Doctor finished assembling his device. He grabbed one of the wires and ran towards the robot. He pointed his sonic screwdriver at the robot and its head began to spin.

"Error, error," the robot repeated, then the Doctor jammed the wire he was holding into the robot's right eye-socket.

Marty got his breath back just in time to call out in pain as he felt an electric jolt go through his body, but he also felt the robot's hand give way and he managed to crawl away, coughing as he got to a safe distance.

The robot wasn't moving anymore, but it was still on, its eyes locked onto the Doctor.

"What happened?" Marty finally managed to speak.

"He took less time to reboot than I had thought," the Doctor explained.

Marty painfully got to his feet and limped over to the Doctor, feeling as though his foot might have been broken.

"What'd you do to it?"

"I've overridden its command chip, the only thing it can do now is speak."

"Time traveller detected," the robot said.

"Why?" Marty wondered why they didn't just decapitate the damn thing.

As an answer, the Doctor turned back to the robot and began questioning it. "Who sent you?"

"The maker," the robot answered.

"Who is the maker?"

The robot whirred.

"Why are you looking for me?"

"Mission command: detect time travellers. Acquire subject. Harvest time."

"You want their time energy?"

"Time energy?" Marty was puzzled.

"Harvest time," the robot repeated.

"Why attack the girl? What did she have to do with any of this?"

"Detect time travellers," came to robot.

"But she's not a time traveller."

"Uh… Doctor…" Marty began, but the Doctor was focused on the machine.

"She is a time traveller."

"No she's-" The Doctor stopped talking and looked at Marty.

"Jennifer Parker. Unique signature detected in 1985 and 2015. She is a time traveller."

"She's a time traveller?"

Marty smiled awkwardly. "Well, the thing is-"

"Time traveller detected," droned the robot.

The Doctor looked at the robot. "How many time travellers have you detected today?"

"Three time travellers detected."

Then, much to Marty's confusion, the Doctor pulled out a pair of cardboard red and blue 3-D glasses. He put them on and stared first at Marty, then at Jennifer, and finally back towards the robot.

"Of course, I'm so stupid!" The Doctor exclaimed. "It wasn't after me, not really, it was after any time traveller. It doesn't make sense that that it would have known I'd be here."

"C'mon Doctor, how do we fix Jennifer?" Marty was getting impatient.

"Where's the girl's time energy?"

"Time energy uploaded."

"Uploaded where?"

"The maker."

"Already?"

"Upload performed in tandem."

"What the hell does that mean?" Marty nearly yelled in frustration.

"It means," the Doctor removed his 3-D glasses and put them back in his brown coat, "I can't bring Jennifer back."

"WHAT!" Marty jumped to his feet. "So that's it! I might as well consider her dead!"

"That's not what I mean," the Doctor got up and looked Marty in the eyes. "I-"

The Doctor started pulling his hair as he thought.

"Well, it might work. I mean, she only needs time energy, it doesn't have to be a specific time energy."

"WHAT THE HELL IS TIME ENERGY!"

"This!" The Doctor grabbed Marty's arm and started running towards the TARDIS, dragging the hapless teen behind him.

They ran right up to the controls of the TARDIS and the Doctor pointed at the great cylinder of light that powered the entire ship.

"What, is that the flux capacitor or something?"

"Flux capacitor? Don't be silly, we haven't used those in over a thousand years, long before I was born-" his head snapped towards Marty. "Did you make a flux capacitor? Is that how you time travelled?"

"I didn't make it, the Doc did – my Doc. Doc Brown I mean."

"So you're just a regular human?"

"Human? Of course I'm a human!"

"And this Doctor Brown is human?"

"Yes!"

"He doesn't by any chance own a fob watch?"

"A what watch?"

"A pocket watch?"

"Uh… I don't know. Why?"

"Probably not important."

"So, what," Marty steered the conversation back on to what _was_ important, "you transfer this energy to Jennifer and she'll be fine again?"

"I'm afraid it's not quite that easy."

"Of course it isn't."

"This is not just any time energy, it's a time vortex, and if I give Jennifer too much energy too soon it'll, well, kill her."

"So just give her a little bit."

"Obviously, but it will take some time."

"How much time?"

"Could be years."

"YEARS!"

"Calm down, barely a second will have passed for her, and being that we're in a time machine I could just pop out and pop back in and whereas several years might have passed for me, no time at all will pass for you."

"If you think I'm letting you take my girlfriend anywhere you're insane."

"No, it's a terrible plan."

"I'll say!"

"I'll have to take you too," the Doctor put up his hand before Marty could start screaming at him again. "It isn't safe for you to stay here. No time traveller is safe right now. I wasn't exactly looking for a travelling companion at the moment, but I can hardly abandon you to fend for yourself in the 1980s."

"How do I even know I can trust you? You and this robot show up the same day, and I'm just supposed to accept that you're not connected?"

The Doctor took a step forward, looking Marty dead in the eye. Marty felt absolutely miniscule next to this man, and not because he was nearly a foot taller than Marty.

"Yes," came the Doctors soft reply.

Marty didn't know why, but he couldn't help but believe him.

"I told myself I'd never time travel again," Marty finally managed to say.

"Well, we don't have to necessarily travel through time."

"But it's a time machine."

"Time and space. Time and Relative Dimensions In Space, that's what TARDIS means. We can go anywhere in time and space."

"Anywhere?" Marty looked past the Doctor into the blue box. "Like, the moon?"

"Or another galaxy."

Marty felt unsure. "I don't know."

"Jennifer's only hope is with me. If you want to take your chances here, I won't stop you, but believe me when I say I'm the only man in the universe who can save her."

"It might be less than a couple years… right?"

"Possibly."

"Like months?"

"Could be decades actually," the Doctor said slightly under his breath.

Marty finally managed to force himself to turn around and stare at Jennifer. He couldn't leave her like that, and he sure as hell couldn't leave her alone with some strange man.

"Okay," his voice cracked.

"Sorry?"

"Okay," Marty looked up at the Doctor and held out his had. "Sign me up Doc, let's go galaxy hoping."

"Brilliant," the Doctor shook Marty's hand. "Welcome aboard, Marty McFly."

**To Be Continued in Episode Two: Alien Expectations**

(Now that I've written episode one, I kinda wish it was more than four chapters long, but I was just so eager to get Marty and the Doctor together and begin the next episode – which will be a separate story, so look to my author profile for updates. I've decided on 13 episodes, and I must say that trying to come up with 13 different plots in order to tell one overall story arc gave me much more respect for writers of television series. I've never appreciated a cliffhanger so much in my entire life.)


End file.
